The United Kingdom extradited Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, wanted by India in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots. The Gujarat police escorted Patel back from London to face trial in a case of rioting at Ode village where 23 people were killed. Patel was arrested after the riots, but he jumped bail and made his way to the UK, where he arrested by Scotland Yard. "Following Government of India's request for extradition, Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, an Indian national, is being extradited on 18th October 2016 to face trial in India," the Indian High Commission said in a statement.

Union Ministers Smriti Irani and DV Sadananda Gowda have reportedly been dropped from Inter-State Council. Irani and Gowda were permanent invitees to the council headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Irani and Gowda were divested of their HRD and Law and Justice portfolios respectively in the last Cabinet reshuffle in July. Irani is now Textiles Minister, while Gowda holds Statistics and Programme Implementation portfolio. Both the ministers were dropped from the council which was reconstituted on Tuesday, according to an official order.

Opinion

British Prime Minister Theresa May's visit to Indian in November will put to the test her government's claim that forging strong non-EU alliances and adopting a hardline stance on immigration are not incompatible, writes Vidya Ram in The Hindu. "When it comes to the relationship with India, May has promised a fresh approach that will focus on forging links between small and medium-sized enterprises in India... Among issues likely to be at the forefront of bilateral discussion is a potential India-UK Free Trade Agreement, something that is being considered at the behest of the UK but which Indian officials have spoken favourably of too. Though official negotiations on such a deal would not be possible while Britain remains an EU member (EU rules forbid this), detailed informal negotiations could mean that a deal could be concluded rapidly after a British exit," she says.

The Supreme Court's stand on triple talaq remains to be seen. But male monopoly over reading of Islam is under serious challenge, writes Javed Anand in The Indian Express. "Across the globe, an increasing number of Muslim women and men are now doing their own reading of religious texts and coming to the same conclusion. That the core values enshrined in the Quran are consonant with the fundamental rights and freedoms embedded in the Indian Constitution, as also the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948. The real conflict today, then, is between their 'our Islam' and the supremacist, misogynist 'their Islam' of the patriarchs," he writes.

As a global regime on drones is put in place, India's voice should be a determining one, not one that is marginal and out there in the wilderness, writes Harsh V Pant in Mint. New Delhi should be engaging with other like-minded countries to come up with its own principles to guide the emerging global order on drones and their use. The debate has only just begun and India should be at the front and centre of this discussion so that its own interests do not get marginalised as a new regime on the use of drones is put in place.